System and method for multi-lingual networking and communication

ABSTRACT

A method and system are provided that facilitate multilingual communication and international social networking. In one respect, the system and method allow individual social network users to instantly message, or chat, with others in the social network according to personally-selected filters. For example, a user may choose to filter others in the social network by age, gender, location, political preference, relationship status, and even hobbies and interests regardless of any personal acquaintance between the user and filtered members. In another respect, the system and method provide automatic and real-time translation of any text or messages conveyed over the social network so that each user may easily communicate with each other user, regardless of any usual language barriers. Translated text and messages may be further cached in electronically stored memory for ease of future translation.

INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE TO ANY PRIORITY APPLICATIONS

Any and all applications for which a foreign or domestic priority claimis identified in the Application Data Sheet as filed with the presentapplication are hereby incorporated by reference under 37 CFR 1.57.

COPYRIGHT AND TRADEMARK NOTICES

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document may contain materialthat is subject to copyright protection. This patent document may showand/or describe matter that is or may become trade dress of the owner.The copyright and trade dress owner has no objection to the facsimilereproduction by any one of the patent document or the patent disclosure,as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent files orrecords, but otherwise reserves all copyrights and trade dress rightswhatsoever.

BACKGROUND Field of the Invention

The disclosed subject matter relates generally to social networking and,more particularly, to computer implemented systems and methods forfacilitating global communication with real time text translation.

Description of the Related Art

As the field of wireless technology has advanced, social networking andonline communication have become ubiquitous. Indeed, together, wirelesscomputing devices and the web-based social networks enabled by suchdevices have allowed individuals from all corners of the globe to remainin contact with and even meet one another. Unfortunately, such contactis often limited by natural language barriers that prevent socialnetworkers from effectively corresponding with and understanding oneanother. As such, social networks have thus far failed to connectinternational strangers with each other and the opportunity to engage invaluable, real-time communication with such international strangers isseverely limited.

Some solutions have been proposed to solve this problem. For example,U.S. Pat. No. 8,271,260 to Wong et al. allows users of a social networkto request translations for specific content. provided on their socialnetworking feeds. U.S. Pat. No. 8,983,850 to Hale et al., discloses amethod of instantaneously translating text sent over instant messagingnetworks. This disclosure purports to aid one-to-one communicationbetween established acquaintances. U.S. Appln. No. 2013/0030789 filed byDalce even teaches a voice recognition module adapted to translatespoken languages for ease of communication.

Although such proposals ease some of the difficulties associated withcommunicating across different languages, they remain deficient. In onerespect, this is because communicating members must opt in to thetranslation service by either affirmatively requesting a translation ofsome communicated message or affirmatively selecting a partner forcommunication from among established acquaintances. No solution existswhich instead allows a user of a social network to selectively filterall members of a given social network, including strangers andacquaintances alike, to facilitate communication with any or allindividuals according to the user's particular interests furtherindependent of any need to consider whether a language barrier mayprevent such communication. This may be a particular problem in acontemporary global economy and up-to-the-minute news cycle whichthrives on real-time communication with remote witnesses and others atthe scene of events who may not always be acquainted with one another.

Although various proposals have been made to solve the aforementionedproblems, none of those in existence combine the characteristics of thepresent invention. Therefore, there is a need for a global socialnetwork platforms to seamlessly connect strangers and acquaintancesalike with automatic, real-time, and multi-language translation.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure is directed to methods and systems thatfacilitate social networking and wireless communication among networkmembers all over the world. Indeed, by providing the opportunity tofilter network members according to various indicators such as age,location, and interests, as well as displaying automatic, real-timetranslations of any submitted text in each network member's preferredlanguage, such methods and systems may allow members who might haveotherwise foregone opportunities to connect with international andnational strangers in light of the usual language barriers. Indeed, itis contemplated that the system and method may enable individualslocated anywhere in the world to connect to others via communicativelylinked mobile electronic devices regardless of language or location.

For purposes of summarizing, certain aspects, advantages, and novelfeatures have been described. It is to be understood that not all suchadvantages may be achieved in accordance with any one particularembodiment. Thus, the disclosed subject matter may be embodied orcarried out in a manner that achieves or optimizes one advantage orgroup of advantages without achieving all advantages as may be taught orsuggested.

In accordance with one embodiment the system and method allow individualsocial network users to filter others in the social network according tovarious individual information supplied by each member of the socialnetwork. For example, the system may receive instructions to filter thesocial network and display only those members of a specified age or agerange, gender, sexual orientation, relationship and/or familial status,from a particularized geographical location or region, holding specifiedreligious and/or political beliefs, having attained a certain level ofeducation, or even with a specific career, hobbies, interests, and more.

Having filtered members of the social network according to instructionsreceived from an individual social network member, the system may thenreceive instructions to transmit messages from the individual to one ormore of the filtered members, as in an instant message or chat room. Itis contemplated that such filtering may be performed, and thus such chatrooms may be formed, regardless of any personal acquaintance between theuser and filtered members. Of course, it is even further contemplatedthat the system may present social network members with pre-formed chatrooms. For example, the system may receive instructions from socialnetwork members electing to join a chat room relating to a newsworthyevent. As another example, the system may receive instructions fromsocial network members electing to join a chat room relating to acelebrity.

It should be noted that one skilled in the art will recognize that thespecificity of such network filtering and even chat room topic may vary.Indeed the system may receive instructions to filter the social networkvery narrowly, very broadly, or to some intermediary extent. One skilledin the art will further recognize that such a filtering process may bedisplayed by the mobile device in various manners. For example, theresults of the filtering process may be displayed as a grid, list, oreven map. The mobile electronic device may even be operative to alterthe display according to preferences received from a each individualsocial network member. As such, the foregoing is offered simply by wayof example and not of limitation.

In addition to filtering social network members, the system and methodmay provide automatic and real-time translation of any text or messagesconveyed over the social network in instant messages or chat rooms sothat each member may easily communicate with each other memberregardless of any language barriers known to be encountered socialnetworks and other forums for communication.

With respect to the translating step in particular, the mobileelectronic device may be operative to determine which languages arepreferred by each participant in a given chat room. For example, in theevent that a chat room comprises three individual members of the socialnetwork, the mobile device may determine that the individual informationsupplied by a first chat room participant indicates that the firstparticipant's preferred language is English, the individual informationsupplied by a second chat room participant indicates that the secondparticipant's preferred language is Spanish, and the individualinformation supplied by a third chat room participant indicates that thethird participant's preferred language is French. Of course, suchindividual information is offered by way of example only and not bylimitation. The number of members participating in a chat room may befewer or greater than three, and the languages preferred by each membermay be those other than or including English, Spanish, and French.

When the mobile device receives instructions to transmit a text-basedmessage from the first participant, the mobile device may determinewhether the preferred language of any additional, or receiving,participants is the same as or different from the language preferred bythe first participant. In accordance with the example given, the mobiledevice may determine that the second participant's preferred language isdifferent than that of the first participant's. In such a case, themobile device may be operative to translate the first participant'smessage into the language preferred by the second participant so thatwhen the second participant receives the transmitted message, it may bedisplayed in a language that he is capable of understanding. Of course,one skilled in the art will recognize that translation may occur so thata third participant, fourth participant, and any other participants eachreceive a message displayed in their own preferred language. Likewise,when the first participant receives a message from any otherparticipants in a chat room, the message displayed by his own mobileelectronic device may be in his own preferred language so that he iscapable of understanding messages transmitted by others regardless oftheir own preferred languages.

In some embodiments, translated text and messages may be cached andstored in an electronic memory to facilitate translation of future,similar messages. When a mobile device receives instructions, forexample, to send a message which is already stored in the cache andtranslated into the language preferred by any receiving participants,the translating step may be entirely passed over, and the cachedtranslation of the message may be sent.

It is further contemplated that multimedia messages comprising photos,videos, and even audio tracks, either live or from a recording, may betransmitted and received in the social network by the mobile electronicdevices.

Thus it is an object of the invention to provide a globally applicablesystem and method for social networking.

It is a further object of the invention to facilitate communicationamong members of a social network regardless of limitationstraditionally occurring as a result of natural language and geographicalbarriers.

It is still a further object of the invention to provide an intuitivelynavigable graphical display interface allowing social network members toelect to participate in private or public one-on-one chats, group chatsin chat rooms, and even global chats relating to various public and/orprivate issues and interests from anywhere in the world.

It is yet another object of the invention to automatically translate anytransmissions across the social network so that each individual socialnetwork member experiences a display in his or her own preferredlanguage.

One or more of the above-disclosed embodiments, m addition to certainalternatives, are provided in further detail below with reference to theattached figures. The disclosed subject matter is not, however, limitedto any particular embodiment disclosed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a blocked diagram of a networked environment in which anexemplary embodiment of a system for global networking and communicationis implemented.

FIGS. 2A-D illustrate exemplary user interfaces implemented the mobileelectronic devices of FIG. 1.

FIGS. 3A-C illustrate additional exemplary user interfaces implementedby the mobile electronic devices shown in FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart depicting an exemplary embodiment of a method forglobal networking and communication may be performed by the system shownin FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart further depicting the translation step illustratedin FIG. 4.

FIGS. 6A-C illustrate exemplary user interfaces implementing the portionof the method for global networking and communication shown in FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a mobile device shown inFIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The disclosed embodiments may be better understood by referring to thefigures in the attached drawings, as provided below. The attachedfigures are provided as non-limiting examples for providing an enablingdescription of the method and system claimed. Attention is called to thefact, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only typicalembodiments of this invention and are therefore not to be considered aslimiting of its scope. One skilled in the art will understand that theinvention may be practiced without some of the details included in orderto provide a thorough enabling description of such embodiments.Well-known structures and functions have not been shown or described indetail to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the description of theembodiments.

One embodiment of the invention is implemented as a program product foruse with a computer system. The program(s) of the program productdefines functions of the embodiments (including the methods describedherein) and can be contained on a variety of computer-readable storagemedia. Illustrative computer-readable storage media include, but are notlimited to: (i) non-writable storage media (e.g., read-only memorydevices within a computer such as CD-ROM disks readable by a CD-ROMdrive) on which information is permanently stored; (ii) writable storagemedia (e.g., floppy disks within a diskette drive or hard-disk drive) onwhich alterable information is stored. Such computer-readable storagemedia, when carrying computer-readable instructions that direct thefunctions of the present invention, are embodiments of the presentinvention. Other media include communications media through whichinformation is conveyed to a computer, such as through a computer ortelephone network, including wireless communications networks. Thelatter embodiment specifically includes transmitting information to/fromthe Internet and other networks. Such communications media, whencarrying computer-readable instructions that direct the functions of thepresent invention, are embodiments of the present invention. Broadly,computer-readable storage media and communications media may be referredto herein as computer-readable media.

In general, the routines executed to implement the embodiments of theinvention, may be part of an operating system or a specific application,component, program, module, object, or sequence of instructions. Thecomputer program of the present invention typically is comprised of amultitude of instructions that will be translated by the native computerinto a machine-readable format and hence executable instructions. Also,programs are comprised of variables and data structures that eitherreside locally to the program. or are found in memory or on storagedevices. in addition, various programs described hereinafter may beidentified based upon !he application for which they are implemented ina specific embodiment of the invention. However, it should beappreciated that any particular program nomenclature that follows isused merely for convenience, and thus the invention should not belimited to use solely in any specific application identified and/orimplied by such nomenclature.

For simplicity and clarity of illustration, the drawing figuresillustrate the general manner of construction, and descriptions anddetails of well-known features and techniques may be omitted to avoidunnecessarily obscuring the invention. Additionally, elements in thedrawing figures are not necessarily drawn to scale. For example, thedimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggeratedrelative to other elements to help improve understanding of embodimentsof the present invention. The same reference numerals in differentfigures denote the same elements.

The terms “first,” “second,” “third,” “fourth,” and the like in thedescription and in the claims, if any, are used for distinguishingbetween similar elements and not necessarily for describing a particularsequential or chronological order. It is to be understood that the termsso used are interchangeable under appropriate circumstances such. thatthe embodiments described herein are, for example, capable of operationin sequences other than those illustrated or otherwise described herein.Furthermore, the terms “include,” and “have,” and any variationsthereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that aprocess, method, system, article, device, or apparatus that comprises alist of elements is not necessarily limited to those elements, but mayinclude other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process,method, system, article, device, or apparatus.

The terms “couple,” “coupled,” “couples,” “coupling,” and the likeshould be broadly understood and refer to connecting two or more elementor signals, electrically, mechanically or otherwise. Two or moreelectrical elements may be electrically coupled, but not mechanically orotherwise coupled; two or more mechanical elements may be mechanicallycoupled, but not electrically or otherwise coupled; two or moreelectrical elements may be mechanically coupled, but not electrically orotherwise coupled. Coupling (whether mechanical, electrical, orotherwise) may be for any length of time, e.g., permanent orsemi-permanent or only for an instant.

Having summarized various aspects of the present disclosure, referencewill now be made in detail to that which is illustrated in the drawings.While the disclosure will be described in connection with thesedrawings, there is no intent to limit it to the embodiment orembodiments disclosed herein. Rather, the intent is to cover allalternatives, modifications and equivalents included within the spiritand scope of the disclosure as defined by the appended claims.

A description of an embodiment of a method and system for globalnetworking and communication is now described followed by a discussionof the operation of various components within the system. In thisregard, FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a networked environment in which anexemplary embodiment of a system for multi-lingual networking andcommunication. As shown in FIG. 1, system 100 comprises a plurality ofmobile devices. By way of example, and not limitation, three mobiledevices 102, 104, and 106 are shown communicatively coupled via acommunication network 108. Each of the mobile devices may be embodied asa mobile computing device such as, for example and without limitation, asmartphone that incorporates cellular telephone functionality. Notably,the communications network can use one or more of various communicationstypes such as, for example and without limitation, cellular and Wi-Ficommunications.

Users of mobile devices 102, 104 and 106 may use their devices to becomemembers of a social network that enables them to interact with eachother using their own respective mobile devices 102, 104 and 106 andexchange information. Indeed, it is contemplated that in someembodiments, more than four billion individuals speaking at least themost popular 41 languages across the globe may choose to join the socialnetwork to interact with each other.

In this exemplary embodiment, the social network is facilitated by awebsite that is hosted by a social network server. As such, the serverfacilitates interaction among the members of the social network 110. Forthe purpose of the example presented in FIG. 1, the members of thesocial network are the users of mobile devices 102, 104 and 106.

With reference to FIGS. 2A-D and 3A-C, one embodiment the system andmethod allows individual social network users to filter others in thesocial network according to various individual information supplied byeach member of the social network. With reference to FIGS. 2A-2D inparticular, each user of the social network may be instructed via aninteractive interface displayed on his or her own mobile electronicdevice to provide information identifying him or herself for othersocial network users. Such information may be saved for each individualuser as a “user profile” searchable to all other social network users.In some embodiments, the user profile or individualized informationcomprises such information as each user's name, date of birth, location,preferred language, and gender, as demonstrated in FIG. 2A. Furtheridentifying or personal information may also be included though. Forexample, in FIG. 2B it may be seen that the interface may provide a userwith the opportunity to indicate an interest in various sports,political views, hobbies, music, movies, collections, and even whetheror not the user has pets.

Of course, the variety, specificity, and breadth of such individualizedinformation may vary, and the foregoing is offered by way of exampleonly and not of limitation. Such individualized information may becompulsory, voluntary or even some combination of the two, and a usermay even be given the opportunity to fill out as much or as little ofany non-compulsory individualized information with as much detail as heor she likes. For example in FIG. 2C, it may be seen that each categoryof individualized information, here a category indicating whether or nota user has pets, may provide any number of types within the categorywhich a user may select with a check mark. Of course one skilled in theart will recognize that the interface may be arranged in various ways toeffectively receive and store user information. In the figures provided,each category of selections is shown as a succession of screen shots,however, the same may be effected by a continuously scrolling page, avariety of drop down menus, among other interface features. In anyevent, any of the individualized information selected by a user may becollected and displayed on a user page or other profile as in FIG. 2D sothat the user may be identifiable and discoverable to other users.

Next, and with reference to FIGS. 3A-C, the system may receiveinstructions to filter the social network and display only those memberswho have indicated certain individualized information to other searchingusers. For example, FIG. 3A shows a series of photos which may be userprofile pictures. A searching user may click on a photo to navigate to auser page like that shown in FIG. 2D. Navigating in this manner may thenallow the searching user to view the photographed user's individualizedinformation to determine whether he or she would like to begin a chat orvirtual conversation. As another example, FIGS. 3B shows a portion of amap of the world with indicators demonstrating the number of socialnetwork users whose individualized information indicates that they liveor are within a certain geographical area. As may be seen, thegeographical region may be as wide as several continents shown in FIG.3B or even as narrow as several city blocks as FIG. 3C. A searching usermay then choose to view the profile and individualized information ofother users within such specified locations and then determine whetherhe or she would like to begin a chat or virtual conversation with suchusers.

Other methods of filtering may also be provided. For example, asearching user may choose through drop down boxes or other interfacefeatures to filter all other social network users by a specified age orage range, gender, sexual orientation, relationship and/or familialstatus, from a particularized geographical location or region, holdingspecified religious and/or political beliefs, having attained a certainlevel of education, or even with a specific career, hobbies, interests,and more.

Having filtered members of the social network according to instructionsreceived from an individual social network member, the system may thenreceive instructions to transmit messages from the individual to one ormore of the filtered members, as in an instant message or chat room. Itis contemplated that such filtering may be performed, and thus such chatrooms may be formed, regardless of any personal acquaintance between theuser and filtered members. Of course, it is even further contemplatedthat the system may present social network members with pre-formed chatrooms. For example, the system may receive instructions from socialnetwork members electing to join a chat room relating to a newsworthyevent. As another example, the system may receive instructions fromsocial network members electing to join a chat room relating to acelebrity.

It should be noted that one skilled in the art will recognize that thespecificity of such network filtering and even chat room topic may vary.Indeed the system may receive instructions to filter the social networkvery narrowly, very broadly, or to some intermediary extent. One skilledin the art will further recognize that such a filtering process may bedisplayed by the mobile device in various manners. For example, theresults of the filtering process may be displayed as a grid, list, oreven map. The mobile electronic device may even be operative to alterthe display according to preferences received from a each individualsocial network member. As such, the foregoing is offered simply by wayof example and not of limitation.

Additionally, server 100 implements the system for multi-lingualnetworking and communication and facilitates sharing information relatedto visits with the network center amongst members of the social network.Specifically, the server 100 implements the steps outlined in FIGS. 4and 5. Accordingly, individual members of the social network can accessthe server 100 using their respective mobile devices 102, 104, and 106and can obtain information regarding other network members and filtersuch members according to their interests.

In order to facilitate the aforementioned functionality, various aspectsmay be performed by one or more of the mobile devices 102, 104 and 106.In one embodiment, mobile device is operative to perform, at least inpart, the method depicted in the flowchart of FIG. 4, depicting anexemplary embodiment of a system and method for multi-lingual networkingand communication as may be performed by mobile device 102 104, and 106of FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 4, the method includes the steps of:receiving a preferred language selection from each individual member ofthe social network (block 400); receiving instructions from anindividual member of the social network to filter the other members ofthe social network (block 402); receiving instructions to initiate achat comprising the individual member and one or more filtered members(block 404); and receiving text messages from the individual member fortransmission to the additional chat members (block 406).

In may be noted that individuals may become members of the socialnetwork by using their mobile device to access one way to add a memberto a social network by using their device 102 to send an invitation toanother user's device 104 inviting them to join the network 110. Sendinga network invitation to another member will prompt them to enteridentification information such as, by way of example, name and emailaddress. Upon complying with the membership requirements, the new memberwill be given access, using their mobile device 104, to all of theprivileges enjoyed by the first member on their device 102.

In this regard, mobile devices 102, 104 and 106 include embodiments ofthe system for multi-lingual networking and communication 100, which canbe implemented in numerous ways such as, for example and withoutlimitation, an application executed on the mobile device. In operation,the system 100 receives member information to uniquely identify membersof the social network 110 (in this case, users of mobile. devices 102,104 and 106). Additionally, system 100 receives informationcorresponding to the preferred language of each individual user. In oneembodiment, this information may be collected by a mobile device 102,104 or 106 from integrated positioning technology, such as a GlobalPositioning System (GPS) allowing the system 100 to determine preferredlanguage based on the language most commonly associated with aparticular geographical location. However, it should be noted thatvarious methods of determining a user's preferred language may bedetermined. In particular, the system 100 may cause the mobile device toprompt a user to manually indicate which language he or she prefers tocommunicate in.

The aforementioned functions can be performed by various components invarious embodiments. For example, the functionality can be highlydistributed across a network or less so by use of functions performed onlocal devices such as 102, 104 and 106.

With reference now to FIGS. 5 and 6A-C, in addition to filtering socialnetwork members, the system and method may provide automatic andreal-time translation of any text or messages conveyed over the socialnetwork in instant messages or chat rooms so that each member may easilycommunicate with each other member regardless of any language barriersknown to be encountered social networks and other forms forcommunication.

With reference to FIG. 5 in particular, the server 100 of FIG. 1 mayfurther implement the steps outlined in FIGS. 5, which continues fromblock 406 in FIG. 4, to effect translation. Such method may include thesteps of: receiving a text message from an individual chat member, orparticipant, for transmission to additional chat members, orparticipants (block 406); caching the message of the individual chatmember in the language selected indicated by that user in his or herindividualized information (block 408); receiving preferred languageselections from any additional chat members or participants (block 410);determining whether the text message is already cached in the languagepreferred by the additional chat members or participants (block 412);translating the message into the language preferred by an additionalchat member (block 414); caching the translated message to aid futuretranslation (block 416); displaying translated text messages (block418); and maintaining a chat history in translated form for each memberof the chat (block 420). The steps relating to blocks 412, 414, and 416may even be performed repeatedly so that a text message is translatedfor each member or participant in the chat.

In an embodiment, when a mobile device receives instructions to transmita text-based message from the first participant, the mobile device maydetermine whether the preferred language of any additional, orreceiving, participants is the same as or different from the languagepreferred by the first participant. In accordance with the examplegiven, the mobile device may determine that the second participant'spreferred language is different than that of the first participant's. Insuch a case, the mobile device may be operative to translate the firstparticipant' s message into the language preferred by the secondparticipant so that when the second participant receives the transmittedmessage, it may be displayed in a language that he is capable ofunderstanding. Of course, one skilled in the art will recognize thattranslation may occur so that a third participant, fourth participant,and any other participants each receive a message displayed in their ownpreferred language. Likewise, when the first participant receives amessage from any other participants in a chat room, the messagedisplayed by his own mobile electronic device may be in his ownpreferred language so that he is capable of understanding messagestransmitted by others regardless of their own preferred languages.

With respect to the translating step in particular, the mobileelectronic device may be operative to determine which languages arepreferred by each participant in a given chat room. For example, a chatroom may comprise three members U1, U2, and U3, demonstratedindividually and respectively as FIG. 6A, 6B, and 6C. Of course the chatroom may comprise fewer or more members, depending on the particularfiltering parameters selected by each chat room member or on any otherdesires of each chatting member. Some, for example, may arbitrarily orotherwise determine that they may wish to participate in larger orsmaller chat rooms for any number of reasons. Thus it will be apparentto one skilled in the art that the number of participants andindividualized information unique to each participant does not limitpractice of the invention. Such qualifiers are provided here by way ofexample only to aid enablement of the invention.

In one embodiment, each chat room participant U1, U2, U3 may haveindicated a different preferred language as part of their individualizedinformation. As such, the mobile device respective to each user maydetermine that the individual information supplied by it's respectiveuser indicates a particular preferred language, and as a result, displayall information provided through the social network in that language.This may even include text messages sent by other users who haveindicated a different preferred language than the viewing user. Toillustrate this, a first chat room participant U1 may have instructedthe system that that his preferred language is English. This may bedemonstrated by the English language displayed on the interfaceassociated with the first participant U1 in FIG. 6A. Likewise,individual information supplied by a second chat room participant U2 mayindicate that the second participant's U2 preferred language is Spanish.Thus, Spanish language messages are displayed on the interfaceassociated with the second participant U2 in FIG. 6B. Again similarly,the individual information supplied by a third chat room participant U3may indicate that the third participant's U3 preferred language isFrench so that any messages displayed on the interface associated withthe third participant U3 are in French in FIG. 6C, regardless of thepreferred language indicated by any other participants. Of course, suchindividual information is offered by way of example only and not bylimitation. The the languages preferred by each member may be thoseother than or including English, Spanish, and French. Indeed, somemembers may even share a preferred language.

In an embodiment, each user may be provided a text box instructing themto “type your message here” or some synonymous variation of the same. Inthe exemplary FIGS. 6A-6C, it may be seen that such instructions areprovided in English, French, and Spanish depending on the languagepreferred by each individual user. Thus in FIG. 6A, the instructions areprovided in English. In FIG. 6B, the instruction to “Escriba su mesanjeaqui” is provided in Spanish, and in FIG. 6C, the instruction to “Tapezvotre message ici” is provided in French. The same may be said of theconversation that all chat members are commonly participating in. Forexample, each chat participant U1, U2, U3 is sending and receiving textmessages in a chat room (alternatively labeled “sala de chat” or “sallede chat” depending on each participants' preferred language in theprovided example) relating to politics. The messages displayed on eachuser's interface have the same meaning for each user, but are displayedin a manner understandable to each individual participant. That is,although a user may type and send a message in his or her own language,the message that is ultimately sent to other chat participants may bedisplayed in each receiving participant's language so that he or she maymore easily comprehend the message. It is contemplated that displayingeach message in a manner understandable to each user may easilyfacilitate global communication independent of a need for inefficientand even inaccurate translation by each participant who might receivemessages in a language they do not understand.

In some embodiments, translated text and messages may be cached andstored in an electronic memory to facilitate translation of future,similar messages. When a mobile device receives instructions, forexample, to send a message which is already stored in the cache andtranslated into the language preferred by any receiving participants,the translating step may be entirely passed over, and the cachedtranslation of the message may be sent.

FIG. 7 illustrates mobile device 102 shown in FIG. 1. As describedearlier, mobile device 102 may be a tablet computer or smartphone butmay also be embodied in any one of a wide variety of wired and/orwireless computing devices. As shown in FIG. 7 mobile device 102includes a processing device (processor) 702, input/output interfaces704, a display 706, a touchscreen interface 708, a network interface710, a memory 712, and operating system 714, a mass storage 716 and anGPS 718, with each communicating across a local data bus 720.Additionally, mobile device 102 incorporates a system for multi-lingualnetworking and communication 100, which is depicted as including meansfor translating text 732, social network member information 734, andcached translations of previously transmitted messages 736, although thelocation of information 732, 734 and 736 could vary.

The processing device 702 may include any custom made or commerciallyavailable processor, a central processing unit (CPU) or an auxiliaryprocessor among several processors associated with the mobile device102, a semiconductor based microprocessor (in the form of a microchip),a macroprocessor, one or more application specific integrated circuits(ASICs), a plurality of suitably configured digital logic gates, andother electrical configurations comprising discrete elements bothindividually and in various combinations to coordinate the overalloperation of the system.

The memory 712 can include any one of a combination of volatile memoryelements (e.g., random-access memory (RAM_, such as DRAM, and SRAM,etc.)) and nonvolatile memory elements. The memory typically comprisesnative operating system 714, one or more native applications, emulationsystems, or emulated applications for any of a variety of operatingsystems and/or emulated hardware platforms, emulated operating systems,etc. For example, the applications may include application specificsoftware which may comprise some or all the components of the mobiledevice 102. In accordance with such embodiments, the components arestored in memory and executed by the processing device. Note thatalthough depicted separately in FIG. 7, the system for multi-lingualnetworking and communication 100 may be resident in memory such asmemory 712.

Touchscreen interface 708 is configured to detect contact within thedisplay area of the display 706 and provides such functionality ason-screen buttons, menus, keyboards, etc. that allows users to navigateuser interfaces by touch. For some embodiments, the mobile device 102will comprise GPS 718 or other means to determine the location of themobile device 102.

One of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the memory 714can, and typically will, comprise other components which have beenomitted for purposes of brevity. Note that in the context of thisdisclosure, a non-transitory computer-readable medium stores one or moreprograms for use by or in connection with an instruction executionsystem, apparatus_, or device. With further reference to FIG. 7, networkinterface device 710 comprises various components used to transmitand/or receive data over a networked environment such as depicted inFIG. 1. When such components are embodied as an application, the one ormore components may be stored on a non-transitory computer-readablemedium and executed by the processing device.

If embodied in software, it should be noted that each block depicted inthe accompanying flowcharts represents a module, segment, or portion ofcode that comprises program instructions stored on a non-transitorycomputer readable medium to implement the specified logical function(s).In this regard, the program instructions may be embodied in the form ofsource code that comprises statements written in a programming languageor machine code that comprises numerical instructions recognizable by asuitable execution system such as the mobile device 102, 104, and 106.The machine code may be converted from the source code, etc. If embodiedin hardware, each block may represent a circuit or a number ofinterconnected circuits to implement the specified logical function(s).Additionally, although the flowcharts show specific orders of execution,it is to be understood that the orders of execution may differ.

It should be emphasized that the above-described embodiments are merelyexamples of possible implementations. Many variations and modificationsmay be made to the above-described embodiments without departing fromthe principles of the present disclosure. All such modifications andvariations are intended to be included herein within the scope of thisdisclosure and protected by the following claims.

Moreover, embodiments and limitations disclosed herein are not dedicatedto the public under the doctrine of dedication if the embodiments and/orlimitations: (1) are not expressly claimed in the claims; and (2) are orare potentially equivalents of express elements and/or limitations inthe claims under the doctrine of equivalents.

Conclusions, Ramifications, and Scope

While certain embodiments of the invention have been illustrated anddescribed, various modifications are contemplated and can be madewithout departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Forexample, chat rooms may be established between strangers andacquaintances alike. More selective communication experiences are alsocontemplated. In one embodiment, various bars to entry in certain chatrooms may be implemented to limit the number of participants. Forexample, the system may provide social network members with theopportunity to subscribe to elite chat rooms with celebrities, athletes,and musicians in a multi-media chat room displayed for each individualmember in his or her preferred language. Other embodiments of the systemand method may comprise a mobile device operative to analyze eachmember's individualized member information to determine a particularlevel of social and/or romantic compatibility between or among socialnetwork members. Accordingly, it is intended that the invention not belimited, except as by the appended claim(s).

The teachings disclosed herein may be applied to other systems, and maynot necessarily be limited to any described herein. The elements andacts of the various embodiments described above can be combined toprovide further embodiments. All of the above patents and applicationsand other references, including any that may be listed in accompanyingfiling papers, are incorporated herein by reference. Aspects of theinvention can be modified, if necessary, to employ the systems,functions and concepts of the various references described above toprovide yet further embodiments of the invention.

Particular terminology used when describing certain features or aspectsof the invention should not be taken to imply that the terminology isbeing refined herein to be restricted to any specific characteristics,features, or aspects of the system and method for multi-lingualnetworking and communication with which that terminology is associated.In general, the terms used in the following claims should not beconstructed to limit the system and method for multi-lingual networkingand communication to the specific embodiments disclosed in thespecification unless the above description section explicitly definesuch terms. Accordingly, the actual scope encompasses not only thedisclosed embodiments, but also all equivalent ways of practicing orimplementing the disclosed system and method. The above description ofembodiments of the system and method for multi-lingual networking andcommunication is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the preciseform disclosed above or to a particular field of usage.

While specific embodiments of, and examples for, the method and systemare described above for illustrative purposes, various equivalentmodifications are possible for which those skilled in the relevant artwill recognize.

While certain aspects of the method and system disclosed are presentedbelow in particular claim forms, various aspects of the method andsystem are contemplated in any number of claim forms. Thus, the inventorreserves the right to add additional claims after filing the applicationto pursue such additional claim forms for other aspects of the systemand method for multi-lingual networking and communication.

What is claimed is:
 1. A device operated by a first user for multi-lingual communication, comprising: a processor; and memory configured to store computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the device to: obtain information corresponding to a second user in a communication application and a third user in the communication application; process an instruction to transmit a first message to the second user and the third user via the communication application, wherein the first message comprises text in a first language; determine that the second user prefers a second language different than the first language; determine that the third user prefers the first language; translate the text from the first language to the second language; and transmit, via the communication application and in response to processing the instruction to transmit the first message, a second message to the second user and a third message to the third user, wherein the second message comprises the translated text, and wherein the third message comprises the text.
 2. The device of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed, further cause the device to store the translated text in a cache.
 3. The device of claim 2, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed, further cause the device to: process a second instruction to transmit a fourth message to the second user, wherein the fourth message comprises the same text as the first message; retrieve the translated text from the cache in place of translating the text; and transmit, via the communication application and in response to processing the second instruction to transmit the fourth message, a fifth message to the second user that comprises the translated text.
 4. The device of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed, further cause the device to display a chat history of a fourth message received from the second user and a fifth message received from the third user, wherein the fourth message comprises a version of second text translated into the first language, and wherein the fifth message comprises third text in the first language.
 5. The device of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed, further cause the device to determine that the second user prefers the second language based on a location of a second device operated by the second user.
 6. The device of claim 1, wherein the communication application comprises a social network.
 7. The device of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed, further cause the device to: process the instruction to transmit the first message to the second user, the third user, and a fourth user via the communication application; determine that the fourth user prefers a third language different than the first language and the second language; translate the text from the first language to the third language to form second translated text; and transmit, via the communication application and in response to processing the instruction to transmit the first message, a fourth message to the fourth user, wherein the fourth message comprises the second translated text.
 8. The device of claim 1, wherein the first message further comprises at least one of a photo, a video, or an audio track.
 9. A computer-implemented method for multi-lingual communication, the computer-implemented method comprising: as implemented by a device operated by a first user that comprises a processor and memory, obtaining information corresponding to a second user in a communication application and a third user in the communication application; receiving an instruction to transmit a first message to the second user and the third user via the communication application, wherein the first message comprises text in a first language; determining that the second user prefers a second language different than the first language; determining that the third user prefers the first language; translating the text from the first language to the second language; and transmitting, via the communication application and in response to receiving the instruction to transmit the first message, a second message to the second user and a third message to the third user, wherein the second message comprises the translated text, and wherein the third message comprises the text.
 10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, further comprising storing the translated text in a cache.
 11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, further comprising: receiving a second instruction to transmit a fourth message to the second user, wherein the fourth message comprises the same text as the first message; retrieving the translated text from the cache in place of translating the text; and transmitting, via the communication application and in response to processing the second instruction to transmit the fourth message, a fifth message to the second user that comprises the translated text.
 12. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, further comprising displaying a chat history of a fourth message received from the second user and a fifth message received from the third user, wherein the fourth message comprises a version of second text translated into the first language, and wherein the fifth message comprises third text in the first language.
 13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein a second device operated by the second user displays the fourth message with a version of the second text in the second language and the fifth message with a version of the third text translated into the second language.
 14. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein determining that the second user prefers a second language further comprises determining that the second user prefers the second language based on a location of a second device operated by the second user.
 15. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the communication application comprises a social network.
 16. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the first message further comprises at least one of a photo, a video, or an audio track.
 17. Non-transitory, computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor of a device operated by a first user, cause the device to: obtain information corresponding to a second user in a communication application and a third user in the communication application; process an instruction to transmit a first message to the second user and the third user via the communication application, wherein the first message comprises text in a first language; determine that the second user prefers a second language different than the first language; translate the text from the first language to the second language; and transmit, via the communication application and in response to processing the instruction to transmit the first message, a second message to the second user and a third message to the third user, wherein the second message comprises the translated text, and wherein the third message comprises the text.
 18. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed, further cause the device to store the translated text in a cache.
 19. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed, further cause the device to: process a second instruction to transmit a fourth message to the second user, wherein the fourth message comprises the same text as the first message; retrieve the translated text from the cache in place of translating the text; and transmit, via the communication application and in response to processing the second instruction to transmit the fourth message, a fifth message to the second user that comprises the translated text.
 20. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed, further cause the device to display a chat history of a fourth message received from the second user and a fifth message received from the third user, wherein the fourth message comprises a version of second text translated into the first language, and wherein the fifth message comprises third text in the first language. 